Celebrating Lebaran - The Muslim's Biggest Holiday and Feast of the Year - Indonesia, July 2014

Beginning with shopping at the traditional market at 5 am the day before, we bought hundreds of frond sacks. Some are for decoration and some are to be filled with dry rice to make rice cakes in frond sacks called ketupat. A frond sack is a sachet the size of a cup made from fresh palm fronds (coconut leaves).



If this is the first time you see ketupat, it may be a bit hard to tell which ones are already filled with rice cakes and which ones are empty sacks.







They would climb on the tree and remove the young shoots of fronds (leaves) and after first removing the frond bone in the middle of the leaf they prepare the leaf tapes for weaving. Using both hands and all fingers, ketupat makers began weaving the long tape-like leaf and make a sachet one at a time.



A skilled ketupat maker would take 1 minute or less to weave a complete sachet. In the old days, each was sold for a penny or less. Though the prices have changed (Thank God) since the 60's they have not changed in how many they sold in a bundle. The magic number.. 10 in a bundle!



The much time-consuming handcraft was never appreciated as much as it is today. They finally understand economics and know how to value their time. I am happy for the people in Java, and for myself for I can still find ketupats in the market. Unless you are a food vendor who sells cooked ketupat on daily basis, you would only find them in the market. If you are food vendor selling cooked ketupat, you would either make the frond sacks yourself or have them made and delivered to your place.